"Actor: Peter Flemming"

• Victoria: The Christmas Special | DVD | (26/12/2017) from £6.99   |  Saving you £-0.40 (N/A%)   |  RRP £6.59

  Victoria and Albert have very different expectations for a family Christmas, and the arrival of a young African orphan at the Palace puts them at loggerheads. Victoria is uncharacteristically melancholy in the festive season. Albert, on the other hand, is gripped by an obsession with staging the perfect family Christmas, and ruffles feathers as he transforms the Palace into a magical festive wonderland. But Victoria is furious to find that, in fact, Albert has invited two very unwelcome house guests. ˜Tis the season for historic enmities to finally climax, new romances to blossom and sacrifices to be made but a terrifying accident calls the couple's priorities into question, and Victoria and Albert finally realise that they must leave behind the pain of their upbringings if they are to give their own children the Christmas that they never had.

• Good Boy! | DVD | (29/03/2004) from £3.49   |  Saving you £12.50 (358.17%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Twelve-year-old Owen has always wanted a dog but hasn't reckoned for Hubble, an interplanetary scout from the Dog Star Sirius!

• Replicant | DVD | (07/01/2002) from £6.73   |  Saving you £13.26 (66.30%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Jean-Claude Van Damme plays two roles in Replicant, a surprisingly good action thriller that also stars Michael Rooker as Jake Riley, a cop who's been tracking a serial killer called "The Torch" (Van Damme). Frustrated, Riley decides to retire--and the National Security Department makes him an offer: they've cloned "The Torch" as part of a programme to track down terrorists; they'll turn this replicant (Van Damme again, of course) over to Riley as a sort of test run for the programme. The idea is that the replicant will slowly recall the original person's memories and lead the cops to the original. It's ridiculous, but no more ridiculous than the setup for the highly successful Face/Off, and it works just as well as the engine for an effective action flick. What makes Replicant more unusual is that the writers actually put some thought into the relationship between Riley and the replicant, which starts to mirror parent-child relationships in emotionally complex ways. Furthermore, while it's no surprise that Rooker gives a solid performance, it is surprising that Van Damme does just as good a job in both of his roles--he's perfectly creepy as the serial killer and genuinely affecting as the quickly developing replicant, projecting a mixture of innocence and turmoil. Replicant was directed by Hong Kong director Ringo Lam, the man behind Full Contact and City on Fire. He was clearly working on a limited budget, but the movie looks good, moves with lean efficiency, and has some riveting action sequences and good quality effects--the scenes where Van Damme (inevitably!) fights himself are completely convincing. A satisfying movie.--Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com